Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Seijaku
by cobra-2k
Summary: Years after the Hinamizawa Incident, an unstable young woman takes a journey as a dangerous method of treatment. Her hometown in quarantine, she travels to a similar place in America. A former resort town in New England said to be Hell on Earth...
1. Chapter 1

Yeah, I'm only being partway serious about this. Just...I don't know, take it how you will. Maybe I'll continue it, maybe I'll hand it over to someone else. Either way, enjoy.

* * *

Being driven was the worst.

Driving was okay, she was a good driver. But she could never stand being driven.

She was driven after to the hospital after the incident. Driven to another, better-equipped hospital after that. Driven to an asylum after that.

The psychology books she'd read said that the car was not a phallic symbol like people thought in Western societies. It actually represented the womb.

The womb wanted to take her back. It would be easy to let it do so, simply surrender to it and give up control, let it do the thinking. But she didn't want that.

There was always the other oblivion. That was always an option. It always had been, and always would be. And she might choose it, eventually. But right now she didn't want that. She just wanted the nightmares to stop.

Sometimes it would seem like they had gone away. She would go for months, a year, never thinking of them. Then they would come, unbidden, worse than before. At first it was just nightmares. Now it was worse.

But she decided to fight. So she drove to the airport, and she had rented a car and now she was driving. She liked driving, even though driving in America was tough, because the cars were reversed. But still, she was driving. Not being driven.

The rain was thick, but not unbearable. She saw a sign in the twilight that told her she had only a few more miles to go before she reached her destination.

This trip wasn't approved by her doctor. The doctor wanted her to keep living her life, keep going to therapy, keep trying to live normally. Even after ten years, her best chance, according to the doctor, was to live normally.

So she'd lived normally. She went to college. She got a job teaching kids physics. She got a pet cat. She got a boyfriend. She got another cat.

Sometimes the dreams would come and she'd wake up and scream and the cats would rush to her, like they were trying to comfort her. Sometimes she'd overhear kids talking about their club activities and she'd freeze and some forgotten game would almost make her cry. Sometimes she'd wake up and not see her boyfriend lying next to her, but _him_ and then she would cry and she'd hug him awake sobbing and telling him how much she missed him. None of that was normal.

She didn't remember what happened. That much had been ascertained by the days of questioning following the Incident. No, she didn't remember what happened, but she didn't forget completely either. Then she'd received a letter about the book.

It took her a month to find a copy of the book, and then a few more weeks to learn to read English well enough to make sense of it all (she'd learned to speak it quite well at college, but the book was a historical one, and used some complicated syntax). She didn't know where the letter had come from, but once she read the book, it didn't matter. She didn't tell her boyfriend, her doctor, or any of her friends about it and what it said. All she knew was that she had to find the place that book told her about. If what the book said was true, then maybe she could find help there.

Her boyfriend was concerned for her. And she didn't like to worry him. She knew that he had good reasons for being worried, though. "I know that what happened must've been bad," he said once, "and I know I probably won't understand. But please, try to tell me. Or tell someone."

"I told everything I know," she replied.

"That's not what I mean," he sighed. "I know you can't remember much. I just want to be able to help you. It seems like whenever you're scared of something and you want help, you don't let anyone come close."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not blaming you for anything. But you have people that care about you. People that love you. And if you don't let them in, then there's nothing they can do for you. Right?"

"Right."

That was after she'd woken him up in the middle of the night. He had been patient with her. Maybe too patient. Sometimes she suspected him of talking secretly with her doctor, but she'd never brought it up. He said that he loved her, and she said she loved him. And she supposed that she did. But how could he understand what had happened, when she herself couldn't? Sometimes she thought that she dreamt of it, but her memories never remained when she woke up. All she could recall was the terror, the anger, and the sense of betrayal. By who or what, she didn't know. Maybe someone betrayed her, maybe she betrayed them, maybe, as her doctor supposed, she felt betrayed by the world for taking everything away from her.

But that was why she was here. Because if the book was right, then this place could help her remember. It apparently had that kind of power. Though the book warned people to stay away, she remembered all the things she used to do that people warned her not to. That construction site was pretty dangerous, and in retrospect she thought she was very lucky that she never hurt herself there.

As Rena pulled up near the Haerbey Motel (she wasn't going to bother trying to pronounce that one) and ducked out of her car, she noticed that a sign was illuminated in the now pouring storm. She gathered her luggage as quickly as possible before darting towards the motel's doors, reading the sign out of the corner of her eye.

"Welcome to Silent Hill."


	2. Interlude Session

It has now come to my attention that this is the only existing Higurashi/Silent Hill crossover. This can be attributed to the fact that I have three letters from doctors confirming that I am awesome. Or was that crazy? Meh.

So enjoy this brief interlude. Also, Silent Hill is in New England. Is it certain? No, but there is more evidence (2 whole pieces!) that places it in that region than others, so that's my personal canon.

* * *

**  
**

**The following transcript is not to be removed from this precinct. It is not to be read without special authorization from the Chief of Police. This file pertains to "Girl A," known hereafter as "Ryuugu 'Rena' Reina," only survivor of the "Hinamizawa Incident." It is a transcript of the first therapeutic session between Ryuugu and Dr. "Kitaharu Nozomu" (alias) of (hospital name expunged).**

There is a click as the recording begins, and then the scrape of a chair on a linoleum floor.

Kitaharu: So, what should I call you? Miss Ryuugu? Reina?

Ryuugu: Rena is fine.

Kitaharu: Rena? Oh, I guess the file has a typo in it.

Ryuugu: No, it's right. But I don't like being called "Reina."

Kitaharu: No? All right. That's fine. If I slip up, just let me know.

(silence for two seconds)

Kitaharu: Rena, I know you've been through something terrible. And I know the police have been bothering you about it a lot. And I need you to understand that everything you tell me is between you and me. It's against the law for me to tell anyone else, even if I wanted to. It's called "patient confidentiality." Unless you tell me that you or someone else is committing a crime or is being abused, I can't tell anyone anything we talk about. My job isn't to ask about the Incident. It's to make sure that you're alright. Okay?

(there is no response, but since Kitaharu does not remark further, it is likely that Ryuugu nodded)

Kitaharu: I understand that you were born in Hinamizawa before moving to Ibaraki. And that you had some problems there. Can you tell me about that?

Ryuugu: Oyashiro-sama punished me.

Kitaharu: Oyashiro-sama is the guardian god of Hinamizawa, correct?

Ryuugu: Yes.

Kitaharu: And can you tell me why you felt that Oyashiro-sama was punishing you?

Ryuugu: Oyashiro-sama wants us to stay in Hinamizawa.

Kitaharu: Yes, so I've heard. But why did you think he was punishing you? What happened that made you think you were being punished?

(silence for five seconds)

Ryuugu: If you're walking alone, you can hear your footsteps very easily. But if you focus, you can hear one more, behind you, when you stop walking. That's how I knew Oyashiro-sama was following me. When I slept, I could feel him above me, staring down at me.

Kitaharu: So you felt like you were being watched all the time?

Ryuugu: Yes.

Kitaharu: Do you know if your parents ever felt the same way? The lived in Hinamizawa as long as you did, right?

Ryuugu: I...I don't know.

Kitaharu: Okay. I-

Ryuugu: Oyashiro-sama was punishing me.

(from this point on, there is a soft, rhythmic pounding sound, believed to be Ryuugu's fist on the table)

Kitaharu: Yes, you've said. But I was wondering if your parents felt the same way.

(the pounding begins to get progressively louder)

Kitaharu: Rena? Is something wrong?

Ryuugu: Oyashiro-sama was punishing me through them.

Kitaharu: "Through" them? I'm sorry, I don't understand. You seem like you're getting very agitated. We don't have to talk about this right now if you don't want to.

Ryuugu: Oyashiro-sama punished me by making me bad.

Kitaharu: It's all right, Rena. There's nothing to be afraid of.

(the pounding stops)

Ryuugu: Nothing to be afraid of.

(there is now a far louder smashing sound, and the rapid scrape of a chair on the floor, followed by a few footsteps)

Kitaharu: Rena! Rena! Stop!

(Kitaharu is forced to restrain Ryuugu and call for assistance, which takes her away, now docile; Kitaharu swears after the door closes; footsteps are heard, interspersed with the occasional sound of a drop of a fluid hitting the floor; the sound of papers shuffling; the recording ends)


	3. Chapter 2

I'm glad people are liking this. This time in the author notes, I'll be telling you what "seijaku" means. It means "silence." If you didn't see that coming, slap yourself for me. Thanks.

Also, I will not abandon Rena's issues (many of which are my own invention). I'm actually rather knowledgeable about psychology, being a Psych major and all, so it should be more like "holy shit psychology" rather than "LOL SIKOLOGY." At first, I actually wanted to have Rena take an evaluation that would let us see her problems more clearly, but (a) it's much better for the narrative to have it drawn out in sessions and (b) Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is doing that. And it looks fucking awesome. So, yeah, every other chapter or so there will be another Interlude – Session to further explore why Rena is just exploding with dark _moe_. Also, this takes place in a universe similar to the one from the Atonement arc. The differences will be revealed in time.

* * *

As Rena opened the door to the lobby, the odor of mildew washed over her. Seeing her blanch, the young girl at the front desk shrugged apologetically. "Yeah, sorry about that. It's this rain, you know? It'll take weeks to air this place out."

"It's fine," Rena replied, knowing that complaining wasn't going to help. Though if her room smelled the same way, she might have to seriously consider just staying outside. "How much for one room for a week?"

"For a week? That's four hundred, but you don't-" she broke off upon seeing Rena rifle through her wallet to come up with the money. "-unless you want to pay all at once, that's fine." She switched on a dismal-looking computer to her right. "Name?"

"Ryuugu Reina."

Tapping at keyboards is an art form to some people.

"Okay, Miz Reina, I can set you up in Room B." Rena was a bit confused by the form of address until she remembered that she was supposed to reverse the order of her name here. The girl lifted a set of keys from behind her and handed one to Rena. "You have any luggage you need help with?"

"No, just these," she said, indicating the couple of suitcases she had with her. "Bit more in the car, but it can wait until the sun's out."

As those last words left her mouth, the girl raised an eyebrow at her, a small smile alighting on her lips. "You in town on a vacation?"

"Ah, yes. I'd heard about this place from a-" she faltered. Did the townspeople know about the book? "-a friend. Some American friends told me this was a really great place to take some time off."

The smile didn't disappear. "Oh, I'm sure." Rena wasn't too familiar with Western tonality, but had she been, she would have been able to identify the mocking tone that the girl's voice had taken on. "We used to get visitors all the time, but these days business is a bit slow, what with the economy and everything."

She walked out from behind her desk and led Rena to a back door, handing her an umbrella as she did. Opening the door and stepping out into the downpour again, she beckoned Rena to follow, and they both jogged over to Room B. She opened the door and ushered Rena inside.

She stood outside the door as Rena set her luggage onto her bed. "I hope you enjoy your stay here, Miz Reina," she said with a smile. "If you need anything, feel free to ask. My name's Claudia Wolf, I work reception in the evenings."

"Thank you, Claudia." Rena smiled gratefully at her, and bowed very slightly before stopping herself. _No need to make her feel uncomfortable._

Claudia turned and began to close the door, but stopped before she did so. "Miz Reina...you said an American friend told you about Silent Hill?"

"Oh, yes," Rena answered. "I'm from Japan, but it's always good to have friends in other countries."

The door opened just wide enough for Claudia to stare through the crack at Rena, and her eyes became decidedly more threatening. "Was this friend, by any chance, a man named-" she took a breath, and spit the name as she would a curse, "-Harry Mason?"

To her credit, Rena kept calm and replied normally. "Mason? No, it was my pen pal, Alan Miller," making up a name on the spot. Claudia immediately relaxed.

"Oh, that's good!" She laughed and shrugged again. "Sorry about that. This writer, Harry Mason, made up all these weird stories about the town, and a lot of visitors come around, 'investigating' things and bothering people. It's gotten to be pretty annoying, so I just thought I'd make sure. Anyway, have a good night!" She left Rena alone then, all tension gone from her demeanor.

Claudia's footsteps were audible even through the wall and the storm. Rena couldn't bring herself to move, still feeling the younger woman's penetrating glare. When she was finally able to shake herself, she found that her hands had inadvertently become fists.

The first thing she did, even though her clothes were drenched and she was shivering, was to dive into her suitcase and retrieve the book, along with the note she had received telling her about the book. She wouldn't have thought much of it, save that the note was written in a handwriting she knew by sight: her own. There was no mistaking it. The 'ka' looking deformed almost to the point where it appeared to be a 'wa,' that was definitely her writing. And since she wrote things down so infrequently, preferring to type them, no one would know her style well enough to copy it.

The note was simple. "Harry Mason wrote a book called _Lost Memories_. Do you think it might have some answers? I wonder, I wonder..."

And so she'd found a copy of the book and translated it herself. It was a ridiculous story, too fantastic to believe. Parts of it seemed reasonable, the parts about the history of this town, Silent Hill. But the second half of the book, Mason's own experience here, was insane. The story was ridiculous, couldn't possibly be true. But Mason had a theory about the town. He'd gathered stories from other people over time, and he believed that the town's power extended beyond what he'd seen.

"It calls to people," he'd written, "calls to people who are lost. Not just lost physically, but lost mentally. It calls to the guilty and it answers their cries for punishment. Of course, this is merely conjecture. Thus far, I have never heard of anyone with an experience as strange and dangerous as mine, so perhaps I am wrong and what I went through was indeed all the suffering and hatred of a miserable child. But I doubt it could have started with that."

Mason apparently went into hiding after writing the book, and no one had heard from him since. He was a fairly popular novelist before, but gave it all up after _Lost Memories_. Most people understandably considered it a publicity stunt and ignored the whole thing, but it spoke to Rena. "It calls to the guilty and answers their cries for punishment."

It sounded like Oyashiro-sama. Oyashiro-sama forgave those who transgressed, but only once they had been punished. Mason made Silent Hill, the town itself, out to do much the same thing. If Rena could find the answer to Silent Hill, maybe she could find the answer to Oyashiro-sama: was he really watching her all those years ago, or was she delusional? Was the entire town insane?

And there was something else. Once she'd read about Silent Hill, it would not leave her mind. It burrowed in, like some filthy, chittering insect, and refused to leave, whispering to her at all hours of the night. Like Oyashiro-sama's constant shadowing, the specter of Silent Hill always loomed at the edge of her vision, sometimes quite literally. She would awaken and look out the window, only to see not the bustle of Tokyo but the hideous fog that Mason described. She would wake in the middle of the night and see the horrific Otherworld that he spoke of, and scream until her boyfriend awakened her and held her until she calmed down, which took at least an hour.

It was calling her. And like Mason and so many others before her, she had answered.

* * *

Okay, this next part here is just an afterword about canon-friendliness. If you don't want spoilers for Silent Hill 1 and 3, or if you're easily bored, don't bother reading this.

It's hard to believe, but Claudia's only 31 when we meet her in Silent Hill 3. She must have been around the same age as Alessa, placing her at age 14 or so when SH1 takes place. SH3 takes place 17 years later. So yeah, she's a 31-year-old with white hair. Maybe the shock of communing with the alien deity at the heart of Silent Hill warped her biology. Or maybe she dyed it, I don't know. The point is that she's 31 in SH3, and she's 19 in this story, placing this story at about 5 years after SH1. Vincent is 26 in SH3, making him 14 in this story if he happens to show up. While it hasn't come up officially, Rena is 23 here (8 years after the events of Higurashi), making the year 1991. In 2002, according to this little timeline, SH3 takes place, and SH1 took place in 1986, both of which are pretty fair, I think, save that Heather should have had a cell phone in SH3. But the game was released in 2003 and offered no time frame. So I blame Harry for getting his daughter a stun gun but no cell phone.

Does it matter? No. I just wanted you all to be impressed by how much free time I have that I made sure my bizarre crossover could fit into both canons without much trouble. Wait, not "impressed." "Worried."


	4. Interlude Extract

The following is a segment from Harry Mason's book, "Lost Memories," detailing a history of the town of Silent Hill, an expose of sorts on the region's religion, and his own bizarre experiences there. Due to the conspiratorial, surreal, and in some cases impossible nature of the narrative, it has been classified a work of fiction.

* * *

They say the "Old Gods" haven't left Silent Hill. They've merely congealed into a single mass.

"The Order" is the name of the religious sect that essentially controls Silent Hill. I'm not sure if this is their true or original name, but it is the only one I have found them to be referred to as. Someone from any other part of America might, at first glance, be tempted to call them some kind of radical Christian sect, but the truth is more complicated than that.

The Native American tribe that first occupied Silent Hill, or "The Place of Silent Spirits," as it was called then, believed in a kind of universal dualism: a light side and a dark side to the world. Sound familiar? Of course it does, it's an extremely common belief. You'd be hard-pressed to find a culture that doesn't have some similar dualism in its history. By all accounts, that tribe was unremarkable among the Abenaki people, save for their relative isolation from their peers. The tribe living in Silent Hill seemed to interact only rarely with other tribes of the Wabanaki Confederation, presumably because the area was so plentiful that they had less need for commerce. The tribe felt that their land was a point where the boundaries between the light and dark worlds was thin, and parts would occasionally bleed through. The tribe failed to keep accurate records of such events, however, and these legends have since been dismissed as metaphorical and superstitious.

Then, of course, the English came.

The Natives living in Silent Hill were slaughtered to a man. Any student of American history knows that there is little strange about that: it happened everywhere. What is strange is that once the settlers had established a township (the name of which has been lost), after one year, they disappeared.

Similar to the incident in Roanoke, Virginia, a traveler came to town one day to find the area completely deserted. Houses were still intact, belongings still there, clothes still hung out to dry. It was as though the populace had simply _ceased_, only unlike Roanoke, there were no clues at all concerning what actually occurred.

One year later, though, the town was bustling again. Newly named "Silent Hill," the place needed some economic revamping. The once-abundant Toluca Lake had stopped yielding its fish, and no cause has ever been determined. Now a small trade town, Silent Hill's ministry began to attract a bit of attention from other settlements.

In the staunchly Anglican New England, Silent Hill's blend of Separatist Calvinism and Native American mysticism disturbed the government greatly. Ordinarily such a sect would be tried and likely executed, but the ministry managed to conceal from their prosecutors what Lovecraft might have called "the central idea of their loathsome faith." Eventually, as the colonies grew more tolerant of other faiths (and had other things to worry about), Silent Hill's religion was left alone, to form what is now called "The Order."

There are some beliefs which are common among all of the sects of the Order, the Sect of the Holy Woman, the Sect of the Holy Mother, and the Sect of Valtiel, the first of which being the one I have had the most encounters with, and which seems to be the most common. The Order believes, as its Calvinist roots suggest, that only a select few are worthy of entering the Kingdom of Heaven. The Holy Woman sect is the only one of which that accepts converts and embraces evangelism, whereas the Holy Mother and Valtiel do not, except under special circumstances (in the Holy Mother's case, the full brainwashing of orphaned children). Another commonality is a hard abstinence stance. It is not by coincidence that Silent Hill's sex education is notoriously poor, and their teen pregnancy rate rather high for a town of its size.

But of course that's hardly unusual. Many highly religious communities in the world take hardline stances on things, despite all evidence proving such methods unhelpful and ultimately detrimental. What sets the Order apart from most religious communities is their embrace of violence and fear as a problem-solver.

A nurse I met in town by the name of Lisa Garland was kept tending a critical-condition young woman for seven years. The Order kept her from revealing the patient's identity and importance by using her addiction to a powerful hallucinogenic drug called White Claudia, manufactured by the Order and sold to fund its operations. That patient was Alessa Gillespie, daughter to Dahlia Gillespie, one of the Order's most influential figures.

Lisa told me about a point in time where state and county politicians were attempting to build up Silent Hill's resort area by expanding into New Silent Hill, the commercial district. This might be expected to meet with resistance in an area with as many vendors as New Silent Hill, but of more importance than the shops was the hidden places of worship underneath those shops. More of the Order's secret rituals and masses took place in hidden locales, despite the fact that there probably wouldn't have been much opposition in the town they virtually controlled. My own theory is that meeting for worship was necessary in colonial times, and survives solely due to force of habit.

Regardless, the Order didn't take kindly to plans to encroach on their territory. Most religious organizations would put together protests and fundraisers and gain endorsement from powerful government figures. The Order did nothing.

Yet all of the key backers of the Silent Hill Restoration Project were dead within a month of the construction's announcement. Reputable doctors all found their deaths to be due to cardiac arrest. All were men in at least their fifties, and so nothing more was made of the deaths than a tragic coincidence. Perhaps they were.

But there was more to the deaths than that. The actual autopsy reports did indicate death by myocardial infarction, but they also made a note of each one: the patients' blood all contained lethal doses of _rivea corymbosa_ extract, the main ingredient in the hallucinogen White Claudia.

* * *

Harry Mason has been missing for approximately eight years now, after he told his publisher that he would be going into hiding following the publication of "Lost Memories." He has been officially declared deceased.


	5. Interlude Session 2

Have I mentioned that there will be major spoilers for Silent Hill 1 and Higurashi in this story? Well, there are.

Also, if anyone reading this story has only played Shattered Memories, then you are probably aware that the canon of that game is distinct from the canon of the rest of the series, and much as I loved Shattered Memories, it's not the canon I'm using here. If you haven't played Shattered Memories, then I am forced to ask of you: why the hell not?

* * *

The following transcript is not to be removed from this precinct. It is not to be read without special authorization from the Chief of Police. This file pertains to "Girl A," known hereafter as "Ryuugu 'Rena' Reina," only survivor of the "Hinamizawa Incident." It is a transcript of the second therapeutic session between Ryuugu and Dr. "Kitaharu Nozomu" (alias) of (hospital name expunged). Note that at this point Ryuugu has begun grief counseling with another therapist, and Kitaharu has been assigned the task of diagnosing any mental disorders he can identify to better provide the patient with effective treatment.

There is a click as the recording begins, and then the scrape of a chair on a linoleum floor.

Kitaharu: So, Rena. It's been a couple of days since our first session. How have you been?

Ryuugu: All right.

Kitaharu: I've heard that you've been eating well. That's good to hear. A lot of girls your age don't eat properly, but I'm glad to see you don't share that problem.

Ryuugu: Hm.

(pause)

Kitaharu: Is this the first time you've been in a hospital?

Ryuugu: Don't you already know that?

Kitaharu: Yes.

(pause)

Ryuugu: (sigh) No, it's not.

Kitaharu: Can you tell me about the other time?

Ryuugu: That was years ago. Rena doesn't really remember.

Kitaharu: I'll be honest, Rena. I think you do remember. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine, but I'd prefer it if you said that, instead of-

Ryuugu: I'm not a liar.

Kitaharu: I wasn't going to say-

Ryuugu: I'm not a liar.

Kitaharu: It's all right, Rena. I don't think you're a liar. But sometimes when we forget things, we really haven't forgotten them. We only want to believe that we've forgotten. Do you know what I mean?

Ryuugu: Rena doesn't remember the other time.

Kitaharu: Okay. That's fine. How many years ago was it, around?

Ryuugu: One or two. Three, maybe.

Kitaharu: Okay. This was in Ibaraki?

Ryuugu: Yes.

Kitaharu: And do you remember how long you were there for?

Ryuugu: Um...maybe a month. It's hard to remember.

Kitaharu: That's okay. I once spent a month in the hospital when I broke my leg very badly. By the end of it, it almost seemed like years has passed, since there wasn't anything to do. Are you keeping busy?

Ryuugu: I'm reading.

Kitaharu: Well, that's good to hear! So few young people take the time to read these days. What are you reading?

Ryuugu: "House of Leaves."

Kitaharu: Can you tell me what it's about?

Ryuugu: No.

Kitaharu: I...what? I mean, that's fine. I mean, if it's something sexual or anything like that, I don't mind. You're allowed to read what you like.

Ryuugu: It's not that. It's just not the kind of book I can explain.

Kitaharu: Ah, I see. (pause) Actually, that's something I should probably ask about. Not books. (pause) Sex, I mean.

Ryuugu: What about it?

Kitaharu: Well, as your doctor, I need to know if you're sexually active. You're getting to the age where you might-

Ryuugu: No.

Kitaharu: Really?

Ryuugu: I'm not a liar.

Kitaharu: Okay, I believe you. But even if you haven't, ah, had sex, what do you think of it? (pause) I mean, do you ever think about sex?

Ryuugu: (inaudible, likely affirmative)

Kitaharu: Is there anyone in particular that you think about?

Ryuugu: (says nothing, likely shakes head no)

Kitaharu: Okay, but let me ask you this. When you do think about having sex, do you think about a boy, another girl, or either?

Ryuugu: I'm heterosexual, if that's what you're asking.

Kitaharu: Oh, I...sorry. I deal with a lot of patients who have trouble hearing words like "homosexual." I didn't mean to patronize you. Sorry.

Ryuugu: It's fine.

Kitaharu: I realize you might not be comfortable sharing this kind of information with me. We haven't spent much time together and I'd understand if you were nervous. But again, nothing here leaves this room. This is strictly between you and me.

Ryuugu: Yes.

Kitaharu: Okay. Now, would you mind if we talked about life in Ibaraki?

Ryuugu: I want to go back to my room.

Kitaharu: You do? We still have more-

Ryuugu: I really want to be alone right now.

Kitaharu: Okay, okay, that's all right. I'll call the nurse's desk and ask them not to disturb you unless necessary. They may make you keep the room door open, though.

Ryuugu: Fine.

Kitaharu: Okay. (sound of chair moving, footsteps as he walks over to Ryuugu) Well, then, until tomorrow, Rena.

(Kitaharu reports that he placed a hand on Ryuugu's shoulder)

Ryuugu: (inaudible)

Kitaharu: Sorry, what?

Ryuugu: I said don't you fucking dare touch me.

(recording ends)

* * *

And yes, "House of Leaves" is a real book. It's a postmoder horror story. Or maybe a postmodern love story. It's a book about a book about a film about a house that's a labyrinth. Protip: if you are reading this novel and a therapist asks you about it, just follow Rena's example. It will be easier on everyone.


	6. Chapter 3

The next chapter almost accidentally contained a Left 4 Dead 2 reference. I was just writing the line "This one time, me and my friend" and my mind automatically finished the thought with "Keith," despite the fact that I meant Alessa. And as far as I can remember, Alessa never set off fireworks, has never been to New Orleans, and hasn't been bombed by the army.

* * *

Rena woke up from a slightly uncomfortable sleep. It wasn't the bed that was the problem, more the fact that she was still fully dressed. She hadn't realized just how tired she had been until her body hit the mattress, but considering that the motel-provided alarm clock read a quarter past noon, she had more than made up for lost time.

Rubbing the grit from her eyes, she noticed that the sound of the rain was noticeably absent. Had that storm really just blown over in a single night? She'd heard of the unpredictable weather in this region of America, but it still seemed hard to believe. Looking around the room, she tried to remember what she did the previous night.

Clearly, she'd unpacked, judging by the way her unzipped suitcase was haphazardly shoved under the night table. She still needed to get her other luggage from her car, though, and figured that she should get changed and fully awake before doing a bit of exploring.

She stood and stretched, whimpering a bit as she did so. She was unusually stiff, but then, driving for hours on end and sleeping in an unfamiliar bed will do that. Since she was still clothed from the night before, she walked groggily over to the door and opened it to get her first good look at Silent Hill.

Rena could hardly believe her eyes. Was this place the same cold, storm-tossed town she'd just driven into? Not only was it bright and sunny out, but there weren't any puddles around on the ground. The trees (the ones that she could see from inside the motel complex, anyway) seemed green and healthy, not like they'd just been beaten around for a few hours.

Of course, with every silver lining there comes a cloud. A cursory glance around the motel parking lot had Rena annoyed. A second glance had her angry. And a third, prolonged search had her panicking. Her car was nowhere to be seen.

There were a handful of other cars in the lot, but none of them looked a ting like the one she had rented. She stormed over to the lobby building, trying hard to keep herself from outright running. As she opened the door to see the front desk, she saw a different person working there, an elderly man with thinning black hair, looking over something that looked like a ledger book. She took a nervous breath to calm herself down and strode over to him.

"Excuse me, sir? I checked in last night, my name's Reina Ryuugu."

The man looked up from his accounts, seeming surprised that someone had managed to sneak up on him, despite Rena's obvious entry. Perhaps he was hard of hearing. "Last night? Mrs. Ryuugu, you say?"

"Yes, I checked in when, ah," she thought to herself for a second for the name to come to her, "Claudia...a young lady named Claudia was here."

"Wolf, Claudia Wolf, yes, yes." He took a different book from a shelf on his left and opened it, skimming the pages for what seemed like minutes to Rena. "Yes, Mrs. Ryuugu, room B. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"My car," Rena began, trying to keep her voice (and accent) steady. It wouldn't do to alarm the old man and panic. "I don't see my car in the parking lot, was there a valet, or something?" She highly doubted that this was the answer, but maybe, just maybe, Claudia had mentioned it and Rena had just forgotten.

The old man looked as though he'd just remembered something important. "Oh, yes, the tenant from B. Yes, I'm afraid I have some bad news." Rena's heart dropped. It must have shown on her face, because the man immediately held up a withered hand and adopted a softer tone. "It's not _that_ bad, really, it wasn't stolen, it was towed. Someone must've smashed into you pretty good in the parking lot. Claudia heard the commotion and ran out to look, but by the time she got there, they'd already pulled away. She wanted to tell you, but she couldn't wake you. But she called the police straight away and they took the car, called the rental place."

"They called the rental shop?" Rena could hardly believe it. Here some drunkard had smashed her car, and now she was going to have to pay for it?

"Now, don't be too upset, the police explained what happened to them, they're not gonna hold you responsible. You'll be stuck here until your car gets fixed up proper." He must have sensed that this was not what Rena had planned, and quickly added, "You can stay here for free, of course, I'll give you a refund on what you paid before."

His smile faltered a bit then. "Not right this moment, though, I need the keys to the safe. Claudia's got those, she'll be back later this evening. Unless it's an emergency, then I could try to call her for you, I'm sure she'd understand."

"No, no, that's fine, no need to bother her." Rena's stomach was halfway between calm and revolution, but she kept telling herself that it could have been worse. A lot worse, really. She heaved a sigh of relief and tried to put a smile on her face. "Sorry, I don't think we've been introduced. Reina Ryuugu." She made sure she got her name right this time.

The old man grinned warmly extended a hand for her to shake. She'd forgotten about that, it was going to take getting used to. "Jake Crawford, and it's good to have you here. And since you've met Claudia, you've met our happy staff."

Rena shook hands with him. His grip was light, though she couldn't tell if he was simply being polite or was weak with age. But something was a bit odd. "If you don't mind my asking, why does...Miss Wolf have the keys?"

Crawford stared at her for a moment, as if trying to understand the question. Then he chuckled a little and looked down in embarrassment. "Well, I say that _we're_ the staff, but really, I'm her staff. Her family owns the place, so really, she's in charge. Her father's a very busy man, but he thought it would be good for his little girl to get some responsibility." He smiled at that. "Some fathers buy their daughters cars, but Leonard Wolf gives his a motel."

Rena laughed at that, though she found it hard to conceal her surprise at hearing about Claudia's entrepreneurship. She couldn't help but wonder if any teenage girl wanted to be shackled with the responsibility of running a business. Mr. Crawford seemed to think that this Mr. Wolf was being generous, but Rena knew that the last thing she would have wanted at that age was to have _more_ things on her plate. Of course, that time in her life was hardly normal. "I'm going to take a look around town. When will Miss Wolf be back?"

"Well, she'll get out of school at three or so, but she won't come here until around eight. You might see her around town, though. Say hello for me if you do." He smiled once more before returning his attention to his ledgers. Rena took that as a sign to leave, and made her way toward the door. Just before she stepped outside, she heard Crawford call out, "Miss Ryuugu?"

Rena turned toward him again, and was shocked to see that his expression was no longer soft and cheerful. His face was stern and serious, and there was no hint of a smile anywhere.

"Just, if you do see Claudia-" and at that moment he changed again, as a shadow of unmistakable fear passed over his face, "-if you see Miss Wolf, just don't mention what I told you. She doesn't like anyone to be talking about her behind her back." He tried to force a laugh then, but Rena didn't believe it for a second. "You know how teenagers are."

Rena nodded seriously, unsure of what else she could do. She slipped out the door, out of the growing gloom of the motel lobby and into the inviting air of Silent Hill.

* * *

So this one time a friend of mine tells me he's writing a live-action _Evangelion_ script. Now, this doesn't surprise me, because he's a huge _Eva _fan, a film major, and loves caustic humor, so it's the sort of thing he would do in order to preserve his sanity after forcing himself to read other people's bad scripts. So it starts out with Gendo bragging about how he's going to use all five Captain Planet rings to start Instrumentality, and Shinji's about to say something, but then the wall crashes open and Action Derrida bursts into the room (as my friend put it, "He's Jacques Derrida, only he's ACTION."). Action Derrida warns Gendo that if he uses the rings he'll cause a chain reaction and kill everyone as he smacks Shinji in the face with the butt of his assault rifle (not out of any real sense of malice towards him, just to emphasize his point). Shinji responds with "Please stop hitting me, Action Derrida," and he replies "Shut up, Asuka." Then Gendo activates the rings anyway and starts to mutate into a Tetsuo-blob, and Derrida throws his rifle at Shinji, chants "Klattu Barrada Nikdo" and summons King Kierkegaard, a gigantic mecha Søren Aabye _Kierkegaard. Then they have to summon Kozoman to save the day._

_This chapter had nothing to do with any of that._


	7. Chapter 4

I'd just like to take the time and thank you all for your words of encouragement. I generally don't do this, but I really do appreciate it. If you want to make it up to me, write Keiichi/Rika lemons. I will be more thankful than you would believe possible.

* * *

Walking up Bachman Road, Rena was finding herself almost at home.

No, that wasn't quite right.

Silent Hill had the same kind of feel as Hinamizawa: cold. Toddlers were fussing loudly until they saw her, at which point they quieted down and stared at her, seemingly mesmerized. At first, she chalked it up to the children having never seen a Japanese woman before, but she quickly realized that even the parents fell silent at her approach, and gripped their charges' hands more tightly until she has passed by.

It was the sort of thing the residents of Hinamizawa would do when an outsider came to town. It was like being back home, only this time she was on the other side of the glass, being ogled by a myriad "other," feeling naked, alone, and cold.

The shopkeepers stopped sweeping their fronts as she passed by. Some offered a perfunctory nod or brief smile if she met their eyes, but the majority just stared. She quickened her pace. As she passed Annie's Bar and came to a crosswalk, she realized with unmitigated dread that she'd only been walking for about a block.

She shuddered in spite of the warm breeze, and in a flash, a wave of intense nausea came upon her. Not having eaten, she could feel nothing but the acidic bile rising in her throat, and she quickly clutched the streetlight pole to steady herself. After a second or two, the need to vomit was gone, and she let out a breath she hadn't realized was being held.

Behind her, she could feel the eyes of the populace staring, burrowing into the back of her head like some awful parasitic insect. A part of her knew that if she turned around, nothing would be out of the ordinary. A different part of her knew that if she turned around, she'd see her friends running up to her smiling and laughing and intent on tearing her to pieces in their fury.

The world around her was beginning to crumble away. Almost as if her surroundings were her insides, the world seemed to retch and heave, and underneath its sunny exterior she could begin to see some awful machine, some loathsome combine under the street, in the buildings ahead of her, within the very air of the town itself, and Rena whirled around to face her friends whose smiles would have given way to the look on their faces at the very moment of their deaths and she whispered "I'm so sorry" as she opened her eyes and saw that the mother had stopped to talk with the man sweeping outside Annie's Bar, and her two children were making faces at each other. No one was paying Rena any attention at all.

The sound of the birds brought Rena back around fully. She _had_ seen it, she could swear it. The entire world had given way to the Truth, and the Truth was going to punish her like Mason said it would. She waited for the world to change back into its true form, but nothing happened. After a few seconds, she realized she was in pain. She brought her right hand up to her face and saw blood on her nails. She'd been scratching at her arms again.

That hadn't happened for a long time, and she had conditioned herself (with help from her doctor) to feel revulsion. She shook her hand swiftly to get some of the blood off, and then walked back over towards the man sweeping up outside Annie's. "Excuse me, sir," he looked up to her, and the cold glare he'd had earlier was replaced with polite curiosity. "I hate to trouble you, but I fell and hurt myself. I don't suppose you have some bandages inside I could use?"

The man took one look at her arm and his eyes widened. "Well, damn, miss, you really tore yourself up! C'mon inside, we'll get you patched up." He ushered her indoors. Rena bowed slightly before remembering where she was and walked inside. The man walked briskly behind the counter and took out some medical gauze. He smiled sheepishly. "Keep it around just in case a fight breaks out. Never hurts to be prepared!"

Rena moved to take the gauze from him, but the man misread the action and started bandaging her arm himself. "Those falls can hurt more than you'd think. This one time, me and my friend Alessa were playing tag with some other kids, and she was 'it' and she was chasin' me all across the schoolyard because she reckoned I was the slowest one, but then her shoelaces came undone and she tripped, and got this _huge_ scrape all along her legs from the gravel on the ground. I think she needed stitches, but at first I didn't think she was hurt all that bad, and I was laughing at her 'cause her hair had gotten messed up, and then when I saw she was bleedin' I felt so bad about it I carried her all the way to the nurse's office. Man, I felt so guilty about it I coulda sworn I heard the sound of her crying that entire night."

The man didn't stop talking until he was done with the bandage. Rena bowed, again forgetting where she was, and said, "Thank you so much, I'm so sorry to bother you so early in the morning."

The man laughed. It was an easy laugh, and Rena winced as a memory of Keiichi came to her. "Naw, it was nothing. We don't really open up 'til around noon, so most mornings I just sit here and be bored. You new in town?" Before she could reply, he started up again, "I mean, I don't mean no offense, I just haven't seen you around before. Not like I know everyone, though, but we don't see a whole lot of Eastern folk around these parts. Not too many where I come from neither, but at least we had some signs of color back home; around here, near all you see is people white as yours truly. Makes everyone that looks different stick out, not always a good thing, but lets you spot a new friendly face a mile away. Name's Ellis, Annie lets me run the place during the weekdays." He put out a hand for her to shake, which Rena did, a little confused by the man's sociability. Had she really managed to convince herself that she was surrounded by hate-filled locals only a couple of minutes ago?

"Rena. I'm just here for a vacation, only for a couple of weeks or so."

"Well, you picked a real nice place here. Lot of people think of Silent Hill as just a place to go with family, what with the amusement park and stuff, but you can have all kinds of fun on your lonesome, 'specially if you need some peace and quiet."

Rena could sense that if she didn't chime in during his brief pause, he'd just go on like that, so she quickly opened her mouth and asked, "Sorry, but you said you're not from Silent Hill?"

The man laughed at that a little. "No, ma'am. Born and raised down in Louisiana, long way from here."

Even if this gambit failed and Ellis became suspicious, she could still chalk it up to Claudia having mentioned it the previous night. "Have you ever heard of someone named Harry Mason?"

Ellis idly picked up a glass and started to clean it as he thought. After a little while, he shook his head. "Can't say as I do. Who is he?"

"I'm not really sure, but Claudia Wolf mentioned the name to me when I checked in, something about him writing a book about the town and giving it a bad reputation."

Ellis' features darkened. He put down the glass and leaned in conspiratorially. "You ask me, it's folks like that Wolf that give this place a bad name, not some writer. I don't like to talk ill about folks, but that family always gives me the creeps. But anyway," he leaned back and his face brightened again, "what's this book about anyhow?"

As Rena explained the general nature of the book, Ellis' face lit up. "Well, I don't rightly know much about Silent Hill before I got here, but you could always check out the Historical Society. It's a bit far from here, you have to go across Toluca Lake. You can get a shuttle down Nathan Street, but if I were you I'd wait for the Toluca Ferry. It's a great view, ton of fun."

Having sufficiently recovered from her shock and getting a bit tired of Ellis' rambling, Rena thanked him again and made to leave. He kindly invited her to stop by in the evening and have a drink. Rena agreed, though she wasn't really the sort of person that went out drinking as a matter of habit. Perhaps after a day in the Historical Society she would be more inclined than usual. If there was any truth to what Mason had written, there had to be at least corroborating evidence.

As Rena walked back the way she had come, towards the docks at Toluca Lake, she felt an itch at her left arm from underneath the bandages. She tried to ignore it.

* * *

After making that mistake, I couldn't stop thinking of the character as Ellis, so I changed all his dialogue and made him Ellis. Why is he here? Well, this one time, him and his friend Keith...


	8. Chapter 5

There is one fundamental fallacy at the core of the human experience. It makes fools of all of us, and all delusions, from forgetting where one's keys are to religions, are all the result of this fallacy.

The fallacy is: I can trust my own senses.

The human mind has two ways of dealing with impossible circumstances. The first is the scientific manner, in which the mind doubts its experiences. An example would be a man seeing a humanoid form outside his bedroom window, and, despite the fact that he _absolutely sure_ the shape is a person, realizes that his room is on the second story, making it impossible for a person to be outside his window, and the shape therefore to be something his imagination has cobbled together.

The second manner is the fallacious manner. Here, the man knows that he can trust his senses. Certainly, there is great evidence that _other_ people are prone to hallucination and simple mind tricks, but _he_ is not other people. He is in control of his own mind, and there _is_ a person outside. Of course, his room is in the second floor, so whatever is out there, human though is must look, is certainly no human...

Only the most stalwart and clear of minds will utilize the former over the latter. It is no fault, though, as natural selection favors an active imagination, the better to avoid potential danger. After all, in the night, there is nothing so dangerous as another living creature.

The reason I relate to you this information will become clear in time.

As Rena watched the ferries board at Toluca Dock, she couldn't help but feel very foolish. Aside from the rather vitriolic Claudia, the people she had met in Silent Hill were undeniably polite. And whatever venom Claudia Wolf harbored for Harry Mason, and however what she'd heard of the Wolf family reminded her of the Sonozaki household, those things were hardly the kind of cultish conspiracy she'd been led to believe inhabited the town.

Yes, The Order. The fanatical, pseudo-Christian faith that worshiped in Silent Hill. Mason had said that they awaited a messiah that would cleanse the earth with fire and terror. Which was apparently par for the course with small town American religion, but these Order people had the advantage of existing in Silent Hill, a place with untold power. Mason said, though, that the Order, for all the power it believed itself to have, was inconsequential, a mere by-product of the Truth about Silent Hill. Indeed, many of the stories that Mason collected about the town concerned people who'd never heard of the Order, and whose bizarre experiences had brought them into contact with no one except the monsters.

The monsters. The strange and wretched creatures that Mason wrote about. He had described them only briefly, but that was not what Rena found intriguing. It was the fact that each person who claimed to have seen a monster in Silent Hill saw something different. Their descriptions ranged from vague and blurry to nightmarishly detailed. When she read about the creatures, the large and aggressive insects, the burned children, and the strange walking fetus-like things, she had tried to picture them in her mind, but found it impossible.

This is not to say that the descriptions were lacking or that Rena was unimaginative. She quite literally could not see these things in her mind's eye. Some kind of block in her brain prevented it. Of course, she believed she knew why. If she were to go to Silent Hill, she would not see what the others had seen. Her monsters would be her own, and she would not, _could not_ see what others had produced.

"And that is what they are: produced," Mason wrote. "Produced from the subconscious mind of the person that sees them, the one that _has_ to see them."

And it is here that the earlier talk of fallacy becomes relevant. For, by Rena's reckoning, scarcely ten minutes had passed since she had left Annie's Bar, yet it was unmistakably dusk.

As Rena slowly realized this, she jumped from the bench she had been sitting at in alarm. The two scenarios were unfolding in her mind. Either she had blacked out for a good few hours, or time had suddenly decided that the rules of the game had changed. Clearly, one was more likely than the other, but that didn't stop it being strange. She hadn't blacked out in a very long time. Not since those days in Hinamizawa. And when she'd come back around, all sorts of odd things had happened. That was the first time that Keiichi-

This was the first time that Keiichi had looked at her with such a hard, unfriendly expression on his face. She tried again. "What's wrong, Keiichi? I just thought it'd be nice to walk home together..."

He snorted. "You really think that? It'd be 'nice?' After what happened last time?"

"Last time?" she asked, her mind racing as she tried to remember. "What's wrong? You seemed happy last time we went to look for treasure." What was he talking about? Yesterday, she'd asked him to come with her to the old construction site to look for neat stuff, and they'd had fun. So what was all this hostility in his eyes? "Didn't you have fun?"

Keiichi glared and moved advanced on her. It was only now, when Keiichi seemed genuinely angry, that she noticed how tall he was compared to her. He wasn't exactly in tip-top shape, but she had no doubt that he could really hurt her if he tried. "Idiot!" he shouted in her face. He pushed aside the hair on the right side of his face, and Rena gasped when she saw a small but jagged-looking cut on his flesh. It looked a bit off-color, as though it might be infected. "I haven't even healed up, and you're pretending like nothing happened?"

"K-Keiichi...how did that happen?"

She didn't notice until he raised his hand back behind his head, didn't realize that he was going to hit her until she took her eyes off of his, and didn't wince until she was sure that he'd stopped himself. Not that it mattered, because the very thought that he was willing to hit her hurt just as badly as if he actually had. "You did it, Rena. I asked you about the dam, and then you said you didn't know, and you hit me. You smashed me into an old car, and then I had to tell my parents how I wasn't in a fight, but managed to get an infected cut on the way home from school."

What could she say? _I didn't do it. I don't remember that_. The most appropriate answer sprang to her lips before she realized she was saying it. "I'm sorry."

"Really?" he said sarcastically as he stepped back and let his hair cover the cut again. "Then maybe you can explain sometime, and maybe I'll even feel like believing you. But right now, if you really want to help me out? You can leave me the hell alone."

She forgot what she'd said in response to that. She assumed that she agreed, but she really couldn't recall. What she could recall was every second of her run home, tears staining her shirt every step of the way, hating herself more with every confused and ashamed thought that ran through her head. Why had she hit Keiichi? She liked him a lot, so why would she do that? And maybe more importantly, why couldn't she remember doing it?

She hadn't slept much that night. She tried to think of some kind of excuse that would make Keiichi believe that she hadn't meant to do it. In the morning, she saw Keiichi on the way to school, and had tried to explain things to him. He seemed much less angry in the morning, but still only grudgingly agreed to walk to school together. It would be a few more days before they really talked about it and he forgave her. Of course, this wouldn't be the only time something like this would happen.

Still, Rena was wise enough to recognize a blackout when it occurred. She got up and checked her cell phone for the time. About seven at night, a good six hours later than she remembered it being. She checked her surroundings to see if she had moved. As far as she could tell, she hadn't left Toluca Docks, and the ferry was nowhere in sight. The night was clear, but the other side of Toluca Lake was difficult to make out. She could hear the distant sounds of an amusement park from across the lake. She might have to check that out, supposedly after dark very bizarre things went down there.

For the moment, though, she decided that she should just head back to Annie's Bar. The man she'd met earlier might be able to shed some more light on local rumors than she could on her own. Tomorrow, she'd really have to start investigating in earnest. Not that she had any real idea of what to look for, or even if looking would do anything. Some of the people Mason had interviewed had come to Silent Hill expecting to find strange things, and others were only passing through when they were taken.

Annie's Bar was far from crowded. There were only five people there that she could see: a bartender, a middle-aged woman instead of Ellis, two men with mullets, one man in a business suit, and, sitting at a table by herself and sipping from a glass of wine, was Claudia. When Rena walked in, Claudia immediately met her eye and gestured for her to sit down.

"Congratulations, you've found the least interesting watering hole in town," she said as Rena sat down with her. "My condolences."

"Thanks," Rena replied, not really knowing how to respond. "Um, about my car-"

"Oh, don't worry about it," Claudia said, brushing her off. "I've already arranged it so you can stay on the house. With any luck, they might even get the guy that did it with the paint scrapings on your car."

"Yeah," said Rena. She looked around. There wasn't really much to the place. One of the men with the mullet stood up and started flipping around the menu on the jukebox. "This place isn't very popular?"

"You want popular, you go a few blocks that way," she pointed in a vaguely east-ward direction, "you get to Heaven's Night. That's where your tourists go."

"Is it?"

"Yeah, can't say I like having a strip joint in my town, but it brings in money and they pay their taxes. So that's that." Claudia shrugged as she downed her glass. Rena didn't think she looked old enough to be drinking, but the bartender wasn't making a fuss about it, so she supposed she'd better keep quiet. Speaking of the bartender...

"Do you happen to know where Ellis is?" she asked. "I met him earlier today, I thought he said he worked weekends."

"Ellis?" Claudia asked, taking out a hip flask and pouring something into her glass that was, by its smell, incredibly potent. "He doesn't work nights, far as I know. Why? He feed you one of his stories?"

"Yes, he was talking about his friend Alessa-"

Rena was cut off as Claudia's eyes widened and she choked on her drink. Rena moved to help her, but she waved her off as she regained control of herself. "He...mentioned Alessa?"

"Yes, he did. I didn't know you knew her too."

"Listen to me," Claudia said as she leaned in over the table, closer to Rena. She could smell the alcohol on her breath. "Listen. Don't talk to me about Alessa. She was...she was very important to me. And whatever Ellis says about her, you don't listen, Ellis wasn't even _here_ until a year ago, and by that time Alessa was gone. She was my friend, not his."

"I'm sorry," Rena said, leaning back in her seat, trying to get as far as possible without seeming rude. Still, she realized that no matter how drunk Claudia might have been, she was definitely talking about this Alessa person in the past tense. "What happened to her?"

"To who?"

"To Alessa."

Claudia sat back down in her seat and took a long, hard look at Rena. Then she took a swig from her glass before answering. "Alessa transferred to a different school."

_Transferred_.

"Far away, across the country. No way I'll ever see her again. My best friend, gone. Thus-" she smiled sadly and raised her glass in a toast.

That sadness was real, but there was more to it. She knew there was, because it was the same kind of half-truth that she had told to Keiichi all those years ago. And even though she knew it didn't matter -that it _shouldn't_ matter- she knew that this was not something she could overlook. But for the moment, there was something more pressing at hand.

The jukebox had finally started up, but Rena couldn't hear any music coming from it. But her head started to throb horribly. She put a hand on her forehead, and then she heard it. Some kind of blaring horn, way off in the distance.

"Do you hear that?" she choked out to Claudia. The pain was making it difficult to talk.

Claudia's answer was muffled, like she was speaking through water. "Yeah, love this song."

Rena jumped from her seat. The people in the bar were acting like nothing was wrong, but how could they not hear that horrible noise from outside? They were acting like the jukebox was just playing music. As she stumble from the bar, she could vaguely hear Claudia singing behind her, "_Find the lady of the light, gone mad with the night, that's how you reshape destiny_."

Even that was drowned out as Rena forced her way through the doors of Annie's Bar and collapsed to her knees. The deafening squall of the air-raid siren pierced through her mind until she lost consciousness.

* * *

That is an actual song, by the way. It's from "The Poet and His Muse," by the band "Poets of the Fall." It's from the soundtrack to Alan Wake, wherein that band is acting as the in-game band Old Gods of Asgard. If you like Silent Hill, I suggest giving Alan Wake a shot. It's not genius, but it's still quite good. And the music is top-notch.


End file.
